In South America, the focus switches from the World Cup qualifiers to the start of the Copa America and Sunday sees the opening match of the tournament in Group B between hosts, Brazil, and Venezuela, at the Estádio Nacional de Brasília.
Having come out of the blocks in explosive fashion in the South American section of the World Cup qualifiers with a 100% winning record and holding a commanding six-point lead over 2nd placed Argentina, Brazil will now switch their attentions to the Copa America which the Brazilians won last time around in 2019.
Autor de 2 gols na vitória da #SeleçãoOlímpica diante da Sérvia, o atacante Pedro falou sobre a motivação para a disputa dos Jogos Olímpicos de Tóquio.🗣: "Agora é focar para continuar bem, evoluindo e crescer cada vez mais com a camisa da Seleção Brasileira"🎥: Jo Marconne pic.twitter.com/oAgDP86Yk2— CBF Futebol (@CBF_Futebol) June 9, 2021
Autor de 2 gols na vitória da #SeleçãoOlímpica diante da Sérvia, o atacante Pedro falou sobre a motivação para a disputa dos Jogos Olímpicos de Tóquio.🗣: "Agora é focar para continuar bem, evoluindo e crescer cada vez mais com a camisa da Seleção Brasileira"🎥: Jo Marconne pic.twitter.com/oAgDP86Yk2
Brazil head into this upcoming Copa America on the back of seven straight wins, six of which have been World Cup qualifying wins and an international friendly 3-0 win over South Korea.
The notable wins in the World Cup qualifiers against Uruguay and Paraguay will also give the hosts a boost.
The hosts are also unbeaten in their last six Copa America matches, winning five of these, while also winning four of the previous five meetings against Venezuela as well.
Onto Venezuela, and they may be feeling mixed emotions heading into this Copa America opener in Group B.
They come up against the favourites to lift the title in their first group match but at least they can get this fixture out of the way straight away.
Venezuela have n’t enjoyed the best of World Cup qualifying campaigns though as picking up just one win from their opening six matches in the South American section indicates, with this one success being a 2-1 home win against Chile.
However, four defeats within this six-match period have seen Venezuela slip to losses against Colombia, Paraguay, Brazil and Bolivia, the latter being a particularly hurtful 3-1 loss in La Paz.
After putting together a promising five-match unbeaten run on the road in all competitions which included wins at USA and Japan, Venezuela have since slumped to three away defeats on the trot having suffered losses at Colombia 3-0, Brazil 1-0 and Bolivia 3-1, conceding 7 goals and scoring just 1 in reply.
In the Copa America, Venezuela have won just one of their last six games and held Brazil to a 0-0 draw within this period but that was back in 2019 and Brazil are a very different proposition now under national coach, Tite.